Practice news April 2009

Most people think that succession planning is a top down activity involving management and seasoned professionals. I suggest it is better to involve the younger generations as well so that they can help create a vision for what the organization aspires to and what it is really looking for in long-term leadership.

Desperate times can sometimes result in desperate measures. During an economic downturn, the pressure to generate revenue can be great. Economic espionage can result when employees are forced to come up with the next big idea or they have financial difficulties. Economic espionage is defined as the theft or misappropriation of trade secrets.

1. Be careful of being too anxious to prove your value.2. Be willing to walk away from every sale.3. Be worth the price of admission.4. Become like the companies and people you admire.5. Brand your honesty.6. Build an asset so attractive that buyers will come looking for it.7. Build things worth noticing.8. Clearly define what you are a steward of.9. Create a product people can easily become obsessed with.10. Develop a system for dealing with customer complaints.11. Discover whether or not this is your own thinking.